May 1, 2008

The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop....

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

Oh, what do I care what pet names a husband and wife have for each other? Trollop... cunt... sounds a little British to me. Isn't that what the Sex Pistols called each other... trollop?

At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop... that suggests that McCain takes the "natural look" approach to applying his makeup.

But I got caught up on cuntgate when I saw this news story in the Des Moines Register today:

A Clive man drew gasps from fellow audience members at today’s presidential candidate forum by using a four-letter word in a question to Sen. John McCain.

A "Clive man" seems to be some sort of hominid.

[MARTY] PARRISH: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I’ve been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?

MCCAIN: Now, now. You don’t want to … Um, you know that’s the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don’t, there’s people here who don’t respect that kind of language. So I’ll move on to the next questioner in the back.

People here who don’t respect that kind of language....? Those people better learn to show some respect.

Turns out the guy is a Baptist minister, just trying to get a straight answer about whether McCain is too much of a hothead to be a good President. McCain didn't get pissed at him, so didn't he get an answer?

Turns out the guy is a Baptist minister, just trying to get a straight answer about whether McCain is too much of a hothead to be a good President.

Well we all know Bill Clinton was, albeit too late. I mean Bill certainly doesn't take any shit from anyone does he? Reporters especially who try and play the race card on him. His office is in Harlem to criminey sakes.

What's wrong with being hot-headed?! The doughy baptist minister can go fuck himself. Hot headed people can make efficient and effective leaders. Who else is he going to vote for? Obama? Or does he think Clinton is less hot-headed than McCain?

Now that everyone knows that McCain threw the c-word at his wife, all women can use it with each other and everything will flow. I see it now -- women calling each other the c-word in a friendly fashion and men being jealous that they can't do the same.

That's how you all think, no?

And here's Tom to the rescue for McCain. It's the old "he's not that he's got counter tops" response.

It doesn't take much to call someone a C-U-Next-Tuesday, but Trollop...that's a little more exciting. It's not something you hear every day.

Based on her Leno appearance last night, I'd say she was a cunt. She did shit behind his back (took flying lessons), called him a bad driver, said he was stalking her at a cocktail party. Then she talked about her fucked up drug addiction. Finally, Leno called McCain an old bastard!

All of these motherfuckers are a bunch of mean, crazy, cunty, foul mouthed assholes!

If I may, the most offensive thing isn't that he said the word "cunt," it's something quoted in the HuffPo story that Ann links to. He claims that "This election is the most significant one since 1860. It appears America is asleep...." The second claim is utterly preposterous; the first is one of my pet peeves. This is barely the most significant election since 2006, let alone 1860. As I said here: "[Obama is wrong to] suggest[] that these are extraordinary times. That's no more true today than it was when Robert Kennedy claimed that those were not ordinary times and that was not an ordinary election. I think history bears out that no election is ever ordinary while it lies before us, and times are never ordinary until they are far behind us. ... [I]t's a natural tendancy to think that we happen to live in exciting, extraordinary times ... but in truth, the challenges that Clinton or McCain in 2009 will have to grapple with are not more significant than those Reagan faced in 1981, to take only one example."

the relationship of man and wife is intimate, and strangers may not question how the partners choose to communicate. Legally they were once one being, and traces of that are still left in the law.

Further, as Owen Wister famously pointed out, all insults can be made palatable:

Therefore Trampas spoke. "Your bet, you son-of-a--."

The Virginian's pistol came out, and his hand lay on the table, holding it unaimed. And with a voice as gentle as ever, the voice that sounded almost like a caress, but drawling a very little more than usual, so that there was almost a space between each word, he issued his orders to the man Trampas: "When you call me that, SMILE." And he looked at Trampas across the table.

Yes, the voice was gentle. But in my ears it seemed as if somewhere the bell of death was ringing; and silence,

bell of death was ringing; and silence, Exactly like my wife's reaction would be should I ever use the c-word to refer to her.

michilines said..."[Simon said that most offensive thing isn't that he said the word 'cunt.'] See Simon, you did it. You can type it. You can say it. NOW."

Michilines, where did you get the impression that I have a problem with the word "cunt"? I have a problem with using language that has been disallowed by the host or hostess of a given forum, but as a general matter, I grew up in England, where it's an obscenity, and certainly not welcome in polite society, but prevalent. And, for that matter, I see no reason why a slang term for female genitalia should be considered so much more offensive than slang for male genitalia.

I don't have a problem with cusswords, but I do have a problem with people who can't make it through a comment - in some cases, a paragraph without falling back on them.

I think it would be wise to be suspicious of anonymous sources or even non-anonymous sources on these things. For instance, several times in op-ed columns I've read of things supposedly said by some prominent politician on a TV program the writer had supposedly viewed only to be disappointed when reading the actual transcripts of said program to find out the 'quote' in question was either apparently manufactured or wildly misinterpreted by the writer. The media("three reporters from Arizona") can't be trusted anymore.

I'm leery of comments along the lines of, "After the private meeting several of the participants swore that Bush mooned the audience and ordered a bomber run on Monaco." No one can really be trusted, least of all anonymous reporters, to objectively relate off-camera events. What's the legal term - hearsay?

Frankly the "cunt" remark sounds like a fabrication and the second episode tells us nothing except that McCain seemed to want to move on from some vulgar language uttered in a public forum. Good for him. I can't see that the second incident in any way validates the "cunt" episode.

I think that all the candidates, or any other celebrity, are subject to this kind of anonymous blackjacking. Crap like this apparently sells books.

Whew, glad that's over. Something of an emotional roller-coaster, wot with the suicide and the sweary old guys 'n everything, well it's a sexy blogging day then innit.

McCain: "Oh, just suck my ... never mind. Any other plants got a question?"

This is a fellow I could vote for if I were voting which I'm not because I'm not so stupid as to think there's not an electoral college between myself and whatever effect my lonely vote could possible have along with this whole winner-take-all business our so-called representative governments are so fondly embracing for even so late as an electronic age in possession of the internets. A pox on both these stinking parties.

I ordered two packages of seeds. Total cost $6.00 including shipping. Received, two packages of seeds and three sets of ten asparagus plants. Total cost $30.00. Too much bother to return so I got to keep them. See? Told you it was funny.

Asparagus plants are weird. They have to be seen to be believed. The bits that look like thick roots aren't -- they're the incipient edible portions.

Anything at this point to direct attention away from Sen. Obama. That's the goal.

Zogby and Rasmussen still have Obama up by about 15% in North Carolina. Four other pollsters have his lead cut to about 5-6% on average. One poll even has Clinton ahead by 2%. Overall average is Obama up by only 8%.

No need to worry about McCain. It's not like he's ever going to be President. He's to ooold (and I'm old). He's also elitist, thin-skinned, hot-tempered and will not be able to stand the exposure he'll get in the next six months.

The Democrats are trying their damndest to hand this election to the Republicans but the Republicans are just as determined to give it back.

So, it comes down to a choice between Obama and Clinton. If you can't see that Obama is the lesser evil (Tom Maguire for one doesn't seem to see it), what can I tell you.

I would also like to see the cunt under a miscroscope in order to study, examine, ponder and respect it.

The contours of the cunt are of interest to me. Edges, lines, flaps would all cause me to pause, and formulate hypothesis.

Also, the moisture level, hair activity, and breathing abilities of the cunt would be something I would want to explore.

Response to stimulus is something that I would want to experience as well. A little tickle tickle to see how it responds or perhaps a rare clumber paw or hair. Maybe even a bacon wrapped scallop with garlic and shallots-what and how does the cunt respond to that specific scallop. How about fried smelt during the smelt run season? Or perhaps a beer battered, lightly golden, butterfly shrimp-what is the intereaction between this gem of the sea and the cunt.

Dripping of "nugget"-another word I love. How does the cunt respond when nugget is being deposited around it's flaps, linings and edges and contours.

FLS, good point! But come on, he was a plant was he not? See, the liberals do not understand how asking McCain about using that word is different from asking Obama about his bigot/terrorist friends. So they worked to give McCain a little "gotcha" moment. But they totally missed how most of the country would be totally offended by someone using that kind of language.

And I think McCain could certainly be our next president, not that he will get my vote. If he were running against someone of substance, he would lose big time as he has no base aside from true believer Republicans.

But they totally missed how most of the country would be totally offended by someone using that kind of language.

Umm no. The point is that they want to get it out there that McCain called his wife a cunt. Most of the country can't imagine either calling their wife a cunt or being called a cunt by their husband. In a world where the almost every other word in the English language is thrown around with abandon, it is the one word that still really is a dirty word and is almost never heard in polite company.

I hope this story keeps getting pushed and that LGF and Michelle Malkin try to turn it into another Rathergate-- "look, liberals pushing slander on our candidate." Because then we can have a whole national conversation about how John McCain calls his debutante wife a cunt in public. And if it gets big enough and the campaign has to make an official denial, then the reporters who heard it (three of them, maybe there were other witnesses) can come forward and deny the denial. And the whole controversy of how John McCain is capable of calling his own wife a cunt in public can be played out on all the nets and cable shows for a straight week.

Or maybe this won't happen at all, because it will be discovered that Obama bought ice cream from a freemason in 1972.

We are not even into the general election and already its poisonous out there--Someone has resurrected a UTube thing with Micky Kantor saying some not so nice things about Hoosiers. And lets see--Ms Clinton is polling ahead of Mr. Obama. Gee--I wonder who did the oppo research on this and released this tape on the Friday before the election. Just in time to dominate the sunday talk shows. I question the timing! I just can't wait until the showdown in Denver!! to quote the Rev Wright: chickens coming home to roost.

Not every man of the cloth stays with it. Marty Parrish may well be an ordained Baptist minister who decided the Gospel was not where the money was. The other day I looked up what happened to anti-segregation priest Fr. Groppi: He left the diocese, and drove a bus for the Milwaukee Transit District.

Further, as an Obama fan, Marty Parrish was probably inspired to ask his mischievous question completely on his own -- no conspiracy needed. As I said above, marriage is sacred and strangers have no business prying into how a couple chooses to communicate.

Marvelous is the power, which can be exercised, almost unconsciously, over a company, or an individual, or even upon a crowd by one person gifted with good temper, good digestion, good intellects, and good looks. But it will never be exercised by such a painted trollop so please cleanse your rouge smeared visage you odious cunt.(Rachel Ray, ch. 11. Anthony Trollope 1863)

I chose not to address it because it's total bull. Obama's "campaign chest" is filled with small donations from his close to 2 million donors. The majority of whom haven't come close to maxing out.

I'm glad you think libel and McCarythism is "fun," because it's most definitely the only way a Republican is going to win after 8 years of the most reviled presidential administration in living memory. There's no way for a Republican to win based on, you know, policy proposals and governing plans.

Rasmussen today: In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, it’s Clinton 47% Obama 44%. That’s the third straight day that Clinton has held a slight edge over Obama (see recent Democratic Nomination results). Last Monday, Obama led by eight percentage points.